{"id":15472,"date":"2022-05-15T20:10:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T18:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1646047"},"modified":"2022-05-15T20:45:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-15T18:45:10","slug":"how-will-the-tenth-doctor-and-donna-noble-return-to-doctor-who","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/how-will-the-tenth-doctor-and-donna-noble-return-to-doctor-who\/","title":{"rendered":"How will the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble return to Doctor Who?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Huw Fullerton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 15 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It\u2019s official \u2013 all our mad conspiracy theories\/wildest dreams have come true, and David Tennant and Catherine Tate are returning<\/a> to Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Doctor and Donna are back together saving the world after over a decade, and we can\u2019t wait to see it.<\/p>\n

Though we do have a few questions. The last time the Doctor and Donna were together, her mind had to be wiped to save her life (thanks to a load of Time Lord stuff in her brain). If she saw or remembered the Doctor again, she\u2019d die.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that, the Doctor regenerated into a new body (played by Matt Smith), and over the years regenerated twice more and finally ended up as the current incarnation Jodie Whittaker.<\/p>\n

So\u2026how are they back? The Tenth Doctor is long gone, and Donna can\u2019t risk seeing any incarnation. Of course, there are a few possibilities \u2013 and returning showrunner Russell T Davies teased pretty much everyone we could think of, which certainly saves us listing them.<\/p>

How will the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble return to Doctor Who?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In his own words: \u201cIt looks impossible. First, we announce a new Doctor, and then an old Doctor, along with the wonderful Donna, what on earth is happening?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe this is a\u00a0missing\u00a0story. Or a parallel world.\u00a0Or\u00a0a\u00a0dream, or a trick, or a flashback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks, Russell! As he suggests, the most obvious explanation for the pair\u2019s return is a \u201cmissing story,\u201d as Davies puts it \u2013 an adventure the pair shared during their original partnership that we didn\u2019t see in the 2008 series. Thanks to time travel, we could encounter the Doctor and Donna again at a time before they had to part ways, and without retrospectively changing their emotional goodbye.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of precedent for this \u2013 Tennant and Tate have actually reprised their Doctor\/Donna roles for a \u201cmissing story\u201d or two before thanks to some Big Finish audio adventures, and it\u2019s a simple way to bring back old favourites.<\/p>\n

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Fan-favourite pairing David Tennant and Catherine Tate are returning to Doctor Who<\/span><\/figcaption> Alistair Heap\/BBC STUDIOS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Still, there are one or two clues that suggest this isn\u2019t what Davies is planning.<\/p>\n

In the announcement release, the BBC highlighted the Doctor and Donna\u2019s farewell, noting the danger of their reunion \u2013 why do that if this is just an adventure set in between TV episodes (or, indeed, a flashback?).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Doctor and Donna parted ways when the Doctor had to wipe Donna\u2019s memory, making\u00a0her\u00a0forget him, in order to save her life,\u201d the BBC release says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left her family with a warning: if ever she remembers,\u00a0she will die. But with the two coming face to face once more, the big question is, just what brings the Doctor and Donna back together?\u201d<\/p>\n

If the answer is \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter, because it\u2019s set before that happened,\u201d well\u2026it would just be a bit of an anticlimax. Perhaps we\u2019d be better looking at other theories.<\/p>\n

Davies also suggests the idea of this being something to do with a \u201cparallel world\u201d which is certainly possible. Remember, in 2008 (the same episode the Doctor and Donna parted) the Doctor left a half-human clone of himself (it\u2019s complicated, let\u2019s not get into it) in a parallel world. While the main universe Doctor regenerated, it was revealed that this half-human version couldn\u2019t. So who\u2019s to say he\u2019s not still living out in that other world, ready to return to the original universe he grew from?<\/p>\n